Debian Sarge on Dell Inspiron XPS Guide (Net Installer)
This documentation is distributed freely by initialdrifteg6. This comment is not to be deleted. Actually.. Don't modify this at all! If you want to add something to it then please add it to
the bottom and note the date so there will be some kind of log. You should gaze this documentation and definately print it out before doing anything!
Refer to the bottom of this documentation for references and other links that might be useful. I was influenced by some of the documentation references below.
I nor any partner here will be held responsible for anything. NOTHING. I did this and it worked for me. Period. You need to do anything else. I have provided this information for free and
have released myself and and contributing party from any liability for damages done due to neglegance or any other reason that might exist. Proper research should be done for anything in
life prior to attempting it... Especially since the XPS and 9100 are not cheap computers.
Boot from the debian linux cd using the command
linux26 acpi=on
During the setup you will want to be stepped through many steps. All of the information and questions asked by the setup was fairly easy for me to understand so please message me if you
have any issues with this. Honestly i'd be frappin suprised if anyone else around is actually installing Debian Sarge on a Dell XPS. The mix isn't that common since the XPS was supose to be
a gaming machine... Almost makes me wonder why linux wasn't preinstalled with cedega to begin with. Once we're through with this documentation you'll be playing Counter-Strike faster
(better fps) than you would on your Win32 Box.
A few steps that i will tell you that i did since i do remember them off the top of my head. I decided to do a dual boot with Microsoft Windows XP and Debian's Net Installer Version of
linux. Once the command above was ran, it asked me languages crap. Do that. Bla bla bla. It'll as for partitions. Since i already had Windows XP on here i decided to keep that partition.
(oh yea... forgot to mention... I partitioned my harddrive in Windows before even bootin up the linux CD... see... i told you that this documentation should have been read or atleast gazed
prior to installation. and don't make fun of my inability to use the shift key... i like lower case letters! uppercase letters are STUPID! (i work with a bunch of drafts men and aparantly
they are all stupid cause they can't grasp the concept that American English DOES have lowercase letters. Once you have your two partitions, then boot from the debian cd)
Tell the installer not to delete all the partitions but to manually edit the partitions. You should see your NTFS Partition and perhaps some other dell partitions... I deleted that crap
(minus the NTFS and the 40Meg Dell Utilities) because i'm just famous like that... I really don't care what dell had on there. But Dell was taking up valuable HDD Space on my computer! But
i took the 30GB unformatted partition (you will most likely have a different size partition) and make 29GB of it an ext3 format, mounted at / and used default settings for the rest. With
the remaining 1GB i made a SWAP format partition. I made all of my partitions primary since i don't plan on making any other partitions... 4 is enough for me...
Once you've finished setting up the partition layout, i made sure that i was to install the Grub Boot Loader to the hda0 location (MBR) *Master Boot Record*
You'll probably go through many more steps which i forget, but one thing that i do remember when the setup unmounts your cd and reboots. Make sure that you tell it to load off the the HTTP
and not the CD. since this is infact a NET INSTALLER that we're doing. Once aptitude appears and it gives you a menu... All i did was hit 'g' to have it start downloading. 20 Minutes later
it finished downloadin for me. If you're on a dialup or some other special connection... sorry... you're SOL (Shit outta luck) cause this is the only method that i have done this on.
I urge you to read each and every word on this documentation since you are pretty much like me (i'll take in assumtion), that you hate reading! So i'll be as informal as possible so it's as
if i'm talkin with you directly. The first step that we want to take is to log in to the gdm (that graphical user interface that appears) and login. Take notice that you cannot login as the
root here. So use the user that was created when the setup was still in progress. Load up the Root Terminal. This is located under the 'Foot' or 'K' button on the menu. Kinda like the M$
Start button. I'm sure M$ will find someone to sue about that one also.. Even though it was kinda Macintosh's idea to begin with.
Anywho. Press that "Start" button and select Root Terminal from the System Menu. Your root password is required. If you have already forgotten. Reboot with the debian cd and start this
method over. We've all done it once before. Actually. Maybe you have, but i haven't =)~
You will want to update the resource lists on debian so we can get the latest and greatest.
apt-get update
Once updated (should only take a few seconds) We'll want to upgrade the distribution. I did this by the following command.
apt-get upgrade
It is not necessary, but my old roommate was being a douchebag and told me that i HAD to use this command instead of the apt-get upgrade. And please keep this in mind. This documentation is
MERELY what i did. Down to the single click! And it works! This does work and i don't care what anyone says!
apt-get dist-upgrade
After doin the upgrade (not dist-upgrade, which i haven't ever done actually.) The computer decides to tell you that it is imperitive to do a reboot. I took it's advice and did as such
right now. The command that i did to do the reboot was REBOOT br /
br /
by debian. So go ahead and install audacity.br /
apt-get install audacitybr /
br /
Now it's time to configure your sound card. Run the command below and just be patient and hit enter on Everything! that's what i did and it worked!br /
alsaconfbr /
br /
Test to see if it comes up correctly. (To get it to work right i had to run a volume control program first. I found one under "Start" --> Multimedia --> Volume Control. Then Run audacity to
see if any error messages occur. If not then try recording something from your microphone (be sure to set the microphone to record... i over looked that in audacity and was wondering what
the heck was going on!) So run Audacity with:
audacity
----------------------SOUND---------------------------------------
----------------------VIDEO---------------------------------------
This section is probably a bit confusing and might take you a bit of time to get the hang of it, but here we go!
First we need to install alien. This program will convert any RPM package to a DEB package! YAY!
apt-get install alien
Then we need to get a script from a server which is found on and written by the owner of Http://kanotix.com/files/
since linux is kinda funny about installing drivers while in the XWindows... be so kind to logout! you will need to do this by stopping gdm with the following command:
/etc/init.d/gdm stop
This will bring you into a "dos" enviroment. login as root and direct yourself to the directory where you wgeted that install-radeon-debian.sh file. If you forgot where you put it then
SHAME on you! type startx and go find it! whenever you found it just log off the machine with the actions menu or the start menu (depends on what front end you are using) alright... let's
proceed. run the script with the following command!
sh install-radeon-debian.sh
silly thing will access the internet again and will take it's time downloading stuff from the ati website. (fglrx drivers) Once it's finished it'll boot back into the XServer with startx...
it'll automatically log you into the root account since that is the account you should be in right now! unfortunately even this guy who wrote the script didn't get everything down as it
wouldn't work on my computer! arg! but i did find some changes to make! run the terminal and get these two files
the stupid thing still doesn't have the right file path of your drm files so around line 182+/- in the /lib/modules/flgrx/build_mod/make.sh file i changed the line to
drmincludes=/usr/src/linux/drivers/char/drm
and there in the /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/ is a file called firegl_public.c and two lines in it are
#include "drm.h"
#include "drm_proc.h"
and they need to be
#include "/usr/src/linux/drivers/char/drm/drm.h"
#include "/usr/src/linux/drivers/char/drm/drm_proc.h"
once you have done that type
once that is finished, run the root terminal (you should already be in the root account, but anyways) type the following to change directories
cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod
we're gonna compile this sheit now!
type
sh make.sh
and this should create your modules!
type
cd..
type
sh make_install.sh
and this should go in and install your file! run the program kedit as root and open up the /etc/X11/XFConfig-4 file. scroll down to the bottom (near the bottom) and change the 24 bit
resolutions to something that you like... you might see "800x600" or something else... since i have the WUXGA (i think that most inspiron xps will have this) i set my highest resolution to
"1920x1200". just add whatever resolutions that you know your monitor supports and you'll be set.
tada! reboot your computer. don't ask why. just do it right now! login again and run the following in a terminal screen. if you see direct rendering: Yes then you are a good boy/girl for
following the instructions correctly!
glxinfo | grep rendering
----------------------VIDEO---------------------------------------
A few programs that i like to use are listed as followed
apt-get install gftp #This is a nice FTP Program and easy to use
apt-get install mozilla-firefox #Watered down version of mozilla. very nice proggy
apt-get install gaim #Kinda like a AOL Instant messenger
apt-get install wireless-tools #program that will help control wireless cards
NOTE:
1. If you have purchased cedega (it's a program, very nice one in fact... then you will need the following program) apt-get install libpng3
2. Wireless documentation is not included in here. I am still perfecting the driver and setup. Will follow soon.
References that i have and you might found/find useful!
I dunno what this is, but when i boot next time in linux i'll do this. (i'm at work right now so they require me to be in win2k/xp... silly m$ supporting basterds!)
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